Getting Started with the Labs
Option 1 - The Lab Computers.
Important It seems a recent update to the lab computers has caused an issue with the Eclipse IDE. I have contacted CECS IT about this issue and asked them to revert the change. In addition, I have created two procedures to work around the problem until it is resolved.
Workaround 1 - Use IntelliJ instead of Eclipse.
I have created instructions for setting up the project in IntelliJ here.
Note: some students had difficulties getting this to work. It seems you sometimes need to wait for IntelliJ to finish indexing the library files, which can be slow, especially during a lab.
Workaround 2 - Run from the command line.
Eclipse will still work for editing source code but will fail to build the project, producing a “Launch Error” when you try to run your program. A simple workaround is to use the command prompt to execute the java file. Open the terminal, navigate to the src folder then type
java HelloWorld.java
Option 2 - Set up the environment on your own computer.
You will need
Getting JOGL installed can be a bit complicated. However, we found the instructions here to be quite useful.
Option 3 - VDI
If you need to access the lab computers remotely, you can use VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure). This resource allows students remote access to the lab environment. For access off campus, the university VPN is also required (see the previous link for details on setting this up). When you connect, select CECS Ubuntu Virtual Desktop.
Note The VDI uses the same environment as the lab computers and therefore currently has the same issue with Eclipse. You will therefore need to apply the same workaround mentioned above.
Option 4 - Virtual Machine
(This option is now obslete, I recommend using VDI instead.)
A more straightforward option might be the provided virtual machine. This should work on most machines and guarantees that you have the right software installed. The downside is that it can be slow (especially for 3D). It also does not work on devices with ARM or M1 processors.
The user name is “cg” with a password “password”. There is a link to “eclipse” on the desktop. People are welcome to give it a go, noting it is big (~5G). It is packaged up in an ova file, so you should be able to “import” it into Virtualbox.
To obtain it you should be able to scp it off partch.anu.edu.au. So with the command (you need to use your uid rather than u1234567):
scp u1234567@partch.anu.edu.au:/courses/comp4610/public_html/external/campus_only/cg.ova .
This command you run on your local machine to copy the file from partch to your local machine. If you are outside the uni you will need to do this within a VPN. See the ANU’s info about remote access.